“Providence Hospital” Matthew 10: 26-31; Acts 4:27,28; Philippians 2:13

                My wife was born to a Methodist family at Presbyterian Hospital.  I told her she was predestined to be Presbyterian.  I was born, on the other hand to a Presbyterian family at Providence Hospital in Columbia.  I remember that each time I go there.   Providence is simply a great name for a hospital.  For it means not only do the doctors and nurses care- but God cares.  When you are sick, hurting, sad, remember God’s care.  Sometimes it is the removal of our own comfort that allows us to open our eyes to the Great Physician.  Sometimes we have to sink in order to appreciate the love of God that lifts us up. 
                PROVIDENCE- Providence is basically “the conviction that God is personal  and that God is personally active in all his creation, in nature and in history, preserving, sustaining, and governing the created order” (Leith Basic Christian Doctrine p. 81)

Creates- The world does not explain itself.  Christians believe that God’s purpose shows in creation.  “Have you not known?  Have you not heard?  The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth” (Isa. 40:28). Regularity of nature is faithfulness of God (Buttrick)

Sustains- He reigns- let the earth rejoice.   God sustains life, just like breathing sustains our bodies.   Without breath, we would wither.  God breathes into us his life.  The word soul is nephesh- which means breath.  He is the personal life force that keeps us going.  He is our life support.   Sun does not come up in the morning w/o God saying “Get up!”  Becuz can desc nature- hard time inc question of the  purpose of it.

Acts-  He does not reign by just staying in the palace- But He came down to His people to show us He cares, and he still acts. 

                Providence stands against the idea of fate, for it is a personal God who governs.  It stands against the idea of astrology- that we are governed by a fixed movement and timing of the stars.  It stands against the pagan idea of “Mother Nature” that tries to personalize the earth.  It stands against the idea of luck and superstition- because instead there is love and trust.   Someone once said, “Depend on the rabbits foot if you want to- but remember it didn’t work for the rabbit.”  Providence is the idea that God governs.   God does not deal with us as if we were sticks and stones, but He understands and made us to be people with wills, minds, and affections.

HOW GOD IS SOVEREIGN IN RELATION TO US- We interact with God through the world.
THROUGH US- The Book of Esther does not mention God by name, but it does show God’s providential hand.  The Jews were scheduled to be exterminated, but Esther was in position as queen to speak up.  Her uncle told her (recorded in Esther- 2:14)- “Who knows but that you have come to royal position for such a time as this?”  God placed her in that position and worked through her.  Someone said that life is alike a very complicated chessmatch with billions of pieces.  God is the chess master who would counter every conceivable move made by the pieces to ensure He won the game.  William Carey, the founder of modern missions, said “Expect great things from God, attempt great things for God.” 
DESPITE US- Joseph- You meant it for evil- God meant it for good;  Joseph knew his brothers were wrong when they sold him into slavery.  He was all alone, and left with his belief of providence- but he never stopped believing.   Some of you are lonely, and you need to have that kind of belief in providence to give you comfort.  Acts 4:27,28- “Indeed Herod and Pontius Pilate  met together with the Gentiles and the people of Israel in this city to conspire against your holy servant Jesus, whom you appointed.  They did what your power and will had decided beforehand should happen.” 

WITH US- “It is God who works in you both to will and to work, for His good pleasure” (Phil. 2:13).  .  The church’s work of helping the hungry through We Care, the homeless through GOoDWorks and Habitat, the thirsty through groups like Medical Missions Inc, the orphan through Thornwell, Newberry Boys Farm or Carolina Children’s Home are all important ways we are the hands of God.   How many times I have heard people say, “Thank God for Thornwell Home for Children?”   It is God at work there, but it is also those who have given.   God calls us, equips us, motivates us, strengthens us to act on His behalf.   We are all called to glorify God with our lives- not just be selfish and greedy with them. 

Human Blush- utterly human involuntary act; Faulkner- “I ain’t got to but I can’t help it.”  AA- responsible-yet hormones, genetics, env, chemical.

WHAT THIS MEANS-

We can pray- Prayer is not just talking to the ceiling, but to a God who cares and is able to act. 

We can give thanks-  In Erhman’s Book, “God’s Problem” he spoke of a kind of loneliness- that he missed having someone to thank.  Providence means we can say, “Thank God!”  and mean it.

We can trust-  If God cares for us, we can rely on that care and lean on that care.  Christ believed in providence and said, “Not my will but thine be done.”

We can work- In his book on “God’s Problem”  agnostic Erhman says that no matter what we have to do something about the suffering in the world.   Christians, motivated by God, have done two things.  We recognize there is evil in the world, and are trying to do something about it (more Christians per capita give to charity than unbelievers).  My question to atheists or agnostics is how do you tell what is evil?  Is it because it feels right?  If all of us are only atoms how can you tell which ones are the evil atoms to be eliminated and which ones are the good ones?   Is human life really more valuable than life by an amoeba?  If so, why?  My second question to an atheist is how do you explain beauty, patterns, and love in the world?  I do not buy the idea of chemicals alone causing me to love my wife and kids.   I think God has given us eyes to see beauty in his providence.   Christians believe what they do matters, and historically, Christians have done more to alleviate suffering than any one group on the planet.  It may not be enough.  But it is more than any one group. We do so believing God’s providential hand gives us strength, and calls us to help others and love our neighbor.

We can dream- We can have hope for the future.  The hope of the atheist is nil.  The sun will eventually die.  The hope of the Christian is that God is in charge of all the universe- even beyond this sun.  We can dream of a better world here because God is at work answering our prayers, giving us strength, inspiring us to do more.  I believe that America’s great and noted optimism can be traced in part to its overwhelming belief in God’s providential hand guiding us and blessing us.  This has given us a purpose and strength even in the hard times. 

                There is a great series of books by Peter Marshall Jr. called “The Light and the Glory” that is really about how God has blessed, molded, and guided America through history.  At the very least we can say a large number of our leaders have believed that God has led them in our country.   In grade school they used to tell these stories, now almost forgotten, for we are told to leave God out.  But history is His Story.  I want to remind you of just a few of these on Memorial Day weekend so maybe we too will be inspired to believe in providence.  Columbus believed God was leading him in his voyage, but his crew was discouraged.  Columbus had reluctantly agreed to turn around in three days.  On the second day they found land.  Columbus called the land they arrived at San Salvador- or Holy Savior.  The Puritans, the Huguenots, the Baptists, the Quakers all came to the new world to escape religious persecution in the old, and also with a dream to set up a city on a hill- morally and spiritually that was to be America.  Thanksgiving is a story of God’s providential care after two years of famine, when they finally learned from an Indian who spoke English, how to grow crops.  In 1768 when it appeared the American Revolution was about to occur, one New York patriot said, “Courage Americans.. the finger of God points out a mighty empire to your children. ..Divine providence seems to have decreed it to our latest posterity.”  In Patrick Henry’s “Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death” speech he also said, “An appeal to arms and to the God of hosts is all that is left to us. ..we shall not fight alone.  God presides over the destinies of nations and will raise up friends for us. “  Our own National Anthem’s final verse says, “O! thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand Between their loved home and the war's desolation! Blest with victory and peace, may the heav'n rescued land Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation.  Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just, And this be our motto: 'In God is our trust.'
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!”  The Gettysburg address says in part, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate... we can not consecrate... we can not hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us—that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion—that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government : of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.  When Reagan told Mr. Gorbachev to tear down this wall- he said the Berlin wall could not withstand faith, truth or freedom.”   Let your belief in providence tear down the wall of distrust, hopelessness, and tear down the ultimate loneliness of life. I believe God has blessed us-providentially.  

Benjamin Franklin (by no means a strong Christian) said at the Constitutional convention: “The longer I live, the more convincing proofs I see of this truth, that God governs in the affairs of man; and if a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without his notice, is it probable that an empire can rise without his aid?”  I am not ashamed to see God’s providential hand at work in our history.   Nor am I ashamed to tell others about it.  In fact, I think it is important that we pass on to the next generation a sense of God’s purpose in their lives.  This brings confidence, hope, strength, and we can relax.  We can relax because it’s not ALL up to us- God is in charge, we are not!